History of the Water Fey and other Primordial Legends
Long ago before the destiny of man was chosen, The Five ruled the strands of fate and creation. The Five consisted of Iago- the Flame Toungue, Baldurn- the Stone Wall, Krea- the Whisper of Mysteries, Luna- the Keeper of Courts, and Steele- the Gear of Destiny. The Five chose to create man when Those Who Are Not Named chose to take what was not theirs and hid in the spaces between the material and time. The Five gave man a task; to maintain the land in the The Five's image. As long as that task was kept, man would be bestowed privileges and freedoms. If it was not, they would be alone and stripped of their destiny. Man knew of no other choice. that was until Those Who Are Not Named showed one of them what they stole. The woman Jezebel, the Mother of the Second Age of Man was shown two of Krea's Mysteries stolen by They and Jezebel knew that Man could be more. These were two of the Pearls of Wisdom; Ingenuity and Desire. Jezebel felt something that was never given to her by The Five and gave Man their first step in being masters of their destiny. The Five grew suspicious of Man after the ways of their tasks changed, at first Man wanted to better the chores given to them and The Five were proud and cautious at the same time. Soon Man wanted things that were more than which were given to them. So they built tools that were not from The Five and made progresses that were not within The Five's desire for Man. The Five warned. And then threatened. And then punished. Within Paragon, the first named city of Man, Steele demanded with stern thunder in his voice for humans to take down these walls for they are not built within the purview of their destiny and will alter the course that The Five have built. By this time Those Who Are Not Named bestowed Man with other gifts, which some of those wisdoms have soured in the souls of mortals, and Pride twisted its head from desire's womb on that day. And with this new found pride Man said no to The Five for the first time. Steele drew upon his machinations of divinity and crushed a wall of Paragon and roared for obedience with a torrent of booming authority that shook forests outside of Paragon and hearts within Man. That demand shook free a new sensation in Man when they looked upon what they have built and saw it crumbled at their feet. Wrath was in their hearts, and weapons were in their hands. Man sundered Steele after 100 days and 100 nights of violence before The Five became Four. With the Gear of Destiny at their feet, Man felt the world call out to them. The horizon seemed to stretch farther. As did their curiosity. The shadows and corners became deeper and complex; as did their thirst for knowledge. Man was on the doorstep of a new world and wanderlust took hold of their souls. The Four recoiled from the scene before them. The act stained their world with something never foretold to them and Those Who Are Not Named '''smiled and drank deep of their success. A frenzy of events took place as The Four tried to think of what to do next. With the bones and viscera of Steele came the first true strides of technology and innovation in Man. They built Walls taller than mountains, roads that spanned over air and water, vessels that moved faster than gusts and currents. Man gained the miracle of invention and explored what was not in their grasp for so many eons. The Four still had followers in some and promised their followers that this is not the path that was planned for them and would only lead them into chaos and strife. The Four took to the Crossroads with their followers, going in a direction away from the others for they know man had tasted something dangerous and would drive some to seek out The Four. The Four never spoke to each other again and the world has never known what has become of them. This now starts a brief history of Luna and Her children of Atlantis. The men and women who followed Luna to the sea became the citizens of the water court. they no longer had the need to eat or breathe. The ocean became their drink and sustained their life. The viscera of their mortal frame disappeared and the Aqualung rested in their place. Their frames lengthened and was provided more than mortal capabilities. As long as they were submerged deep and never took to land, the water fey lived immortal in the service of Luna. Luna will always watch over the waters, making sure that man will never get to her or her court. She keeps a vigilant eye throughout the night and will rest during the day when she sees that Iago will be on patrol. The Atlanteans have become a devout and isolated people, protectors of the balance of the tides and creators of life under the sea. They forged a balance of life in the sea, a game of give and take, predator and prey, able to create but also sustain for all eternity. For that Luna provides them with the Waterkiss, the ability to be at one with the water and allow the water to be an extension of their will. All was well for time unknown. But '''Those Who Are Not Named are far from finishing their plans. What the Alanteans created They can twist and coerce. They alter the fabric of those which the Alanteans created. Giving free will to those who prey, giving them dark purpose and bestowing a physique so they can deliver hatred and death towards the children of the fey courts. The Sahuagin are just that creature; Alanteans mixed with sea creature and tainted with dark purpose. Unlike the Atlantean, they have no holds to the sea and can breach the surface if their evil will decides; giving them a literal upper hand to all battles against the near-pacifistic Alanteans. Over time the sleeping will of desire and ingenuity stirs in the depths of the water court and they begin to learn to combat the Sahuagin with the Waterkiss and develop a powerful weapon. The Sahuagin begin to learn that this is no longer a slaughter but total war. Preservation is a true tenant in the Law of Luna and is dealt with brutal efficiency by the Moon Knights, warriors who are gifted with the art of defense of Atlantis though bending water and tide to the extremes that their mother allows. But yet that is not enough to deter the sea monsters. they simply become more crafty and devious in their ways of death and destruction. Enter Tealien, Moon Knight General of Atlantis and its first forsaken son. A man of great heroism and exploits. A friend to many, a father to some, and a companion to one. This great protector of Atlantis was one of the first to study from the first Waterkissed masters and strived to build and protect what his civilization exemplifies. The history of Atlantis will come to know him as a man who would do this at any cost. After losing so many men and women to Sahuagin, who learn to build explosive depth charges that could be released from the land and deliver destruction to the capitol city fathoms below, Tealien vowed that he would find a way to bring the war to the land that Sahuagin call home. After great time practicing new and experimental waterkissed techniques, researching with sages and priests of the moon, and simply testing the limits of "starving himself" outside of the ocean's life sustaining waves Tealien found no answer. It wasn't until Tealien captured a Sahuagin and demanded that this beast would show him a way to enter the land above without succumbing to weakness, that this answer would find him. A dark cleverness enveloped the spark behind the sea monsters eyes and a voice from beyond its mouth took hold in Tealien's mind. It claimed that it knew a way for the Moon Knight to gain the ability to breach the tides and take the fight to those he wishes dead but warned him that there are always consequences to such drastic actions. The creature told him that if he was to gain this knowledge, he would have to grant a simple but dearly coveted wish to it. Tealien thought long and hard and turned the creature down. It guaranteed that if he does not seek out this guarded knowledge the voice holds, his civilization would indeed fall before he won his next battle. Tealien's lesser thoughts got the better of him as he reflected upon his family and friends and knew an inevitable truth sank deep in the rebuke. "Give me a Name..." The creature hissed out with veiled string of energized words. Confounded and feeling almost baited by such a simple and odd request that he did not think of what truly horrible consequences could come of this before of saying the first word that surfaced. "Ir'thethrsahuagin (Who Holds Truth Behind Monstrosity)" was released from his lips and a cold chill ran through the extremities of his body and sat in his aqualung like a sinking stone. The creature died only for an instant and then was something more, something that clung to the shadows of the ocean floor, or did the shadows cling to it? Regardless, Ir'thethrsahuagin bowed and said, "I cannot thank you enough First and Forsaken Son of Atlantis." They then conversed of where the Moon Knight's answer lies and what to do when he finds it. Tealien never saw the dark creature again, even after he brutally and efficiently devoured nearly the entire Sahuagin population with his soon new found power. Alone. Down deep in the Forsaken Trench, a place Luna forbids her Kissed to go above all else, is where the weapon known as the Pearl of Desire is kept. Ir'thethrsahuagin warned Tealien that the Pearl is coveted by one already. The Leviathan, The Named One called it, was a creature who's desire gave it unknown and dangerous potential. Leviathan was chained and placed there for that reason. But Tealien had no other choice, the dread of his race's genocide was deep in Tealien's chest and chilled him to the bone. The Moon Knight dropped down to the floor of the Great Ocean and stood at the lip of the chasm. Luna's Light already was veiled from his eyes and soon it will be hidden from his soul. With one prayer pieced together he dropped further down. The pressure gripped him at his core and the darkness was all consuming. Tealien could not even feel his will in the water. He was alone in body and spirit. He knew that this was wrong in hindsight. His feet landed at the bottom and an Atlantean felt still, dead water for the first time. No pull, no flow, no direction, no purpose. The silence brought on a lethargic cascade of time until Tealien took a step forward and a strobe of maligned rust colored light burst out of a maw the size of a whale strides before him. The Moon Knight shaped water into a spherical shield so strong that it refracted most of the light onto the walls of the chasm and upon the expansive creature before him. A creature of lashing tentacles and scales, of vulgar fins and eyes, and with one great maw serrated with an infinitum of teeth roared in an old Atlantean tongue before him "IT! IS! MINE!". The pearl was visible to Tealien, it was no bigger than his fist but was the source of the cruel light, and it was rest deep in the maw of The Leviathan. The barnacle crusted creature failed to rush and consume the Atlantean as black iron chains dug deep into its flesh, mixing sluggish blood into the dead water, and brilliant malevolent runes inscribed themselves up the chains when the beast attempted to rush again. It screamed and Tealien acted. The chasm walls started to molt with spear tips for giant-sized weapons and the water mixed with the muddy bottom creating a coagulated soup that Tealien took a hold of with purposeful will. The water stirred into a tempest around him, arming itself with the spear-like debris and rotten bones in the pit. the shrapnel took hold upon the beast's flesh and it screamed and Tealien laid down the full might of his tempest upon the creature. The water illuminated by the Pearl's light appeared as thickly polluted amber as more of the creature's blood mixed with it. The hooks of the black iron chains released themselves from the remainder of the flesh they horded in their grasp. Instantly a flurry of tentacles groped furiously in the storm of water, stone, and bone only to find the Tealien was yards above the assault already creating a spear-like jet of water to impale the beast. A congregation of eyes upon Leviathan's back all focused on the Moon Knight as It's tentacles simultaneously lunged like coiled springs below the now ascending monster, caused a screen of mud and black blood, and the schism and fracture of the chasm's wall nearest Tealien. Tealien loosed the spear in the mud screen and tried to swim through the dead water, only to find the blood in the water coiled around him like strangler's kelp and fought him to stay in place. the rocks above hit Tealien with monolithic force. He sank down for a fraction of time only to find that the Leviathan was upon him. Immature tentacles growing from It's wounds wrapped around his feet and hands with the speed of eels and drew him taught with a brutal but simple snap. "MINE! YOU WILL BE MINE! LIKE ALL OTHER'S WHO HAVE TRIED TO GAIN WHAT THEY CAN ONLY WISH TO REACH, YOU WILL BE MINE!" The dark creature roared drunk on the Pearl's power. With another brutal snap Tealien lost all sensation from his upper limbs and he saw his own blood leave his arms that were floating down towards the floor of the chasm; the Leviathan's blood swarming around it like hungry piranhas upon easy prey. the tentacles around his feet and legs tightened their grip, raised The Atlantean's body high above the floor and with meteoric force, slammed his body down once. His bones cracked and loss form. Tealien visualized Sahuagin coming into his home while his family morns his fruitless death. HIs body whips into the ocean high above once more. Tealien's body screams with pain and defeat. He looks up to the surface of the ocean. Luna's light is not there it caress his face or calm his spirit. The creature's who enter his home will torture his family first and then his family will choose the order in which they die. Another crushing impact causes sparks to flutter in the Moon Knights water sight. the only material light he sees is the murky orange hidden deep inside the creature. His body begins to feel the frozen depths for the first time. He realizes the Water's Kiss is leaving him. His city will crack and will be engulfed into the earth because he followed the words of a monster. Tealien calls himself a fool and looks forward to death. The limp and lifeless body is picked up with the vacuum of water that goes into the Leviathan's maw. Moments passed and the environment began to settle as the burnt orange light dies out. Tealien awakes suddenly as if something will not let him go to the blackest depths. The orange smoldering pearl stared into him as he gazed upon it. He thought he had given up. But his desire to protect those he loved proved him wrong. Or in hindsight, had the Pearl decided that Tealien was not done with this life. In the waterless vacuum of the beast's stomach the Pearl rose from it's resting place and the beast stirred. "Drink of me and you will become what you need to be Tealien of Atlantis. Accept my offer and you will know your family will prosper.... Drink of me Tealien of Atlantis and you will provide peace." The Pearl whispered into his mind. Tealien thought if this was the same thing bribe that the Peal gave to what Leviathan once was. If the power of the Pearl was to become monstrous, he wanted no part of it. "You hold the will of your own desires Tealien. I cannot sway your judgment, Leviathan chose this life and he chose to trap me down here so no one can reap the benefits I have to offer Atlantis or any other mortal in Creation. As long as you desire I will help you to them. And once you have no use of me, discard me. I leave that decision to you. You have the power before you to save your people and stop Those Who Are Not Named from creating anymore of their fell-spawn." It replied to the Atlantean's thoughts. With It's intentions claimed, the Atlantean began to feel his soul slipping and like all mortal things with moments left in life, he made a drastic decision. The Pearl felt acceptance and floated to just a few spaces away from the broken fey's lips. As Tealien rose to open his mouth the pearl shot forward and burrowed into the fey's mouth, cracking the mandible and separating flesh to burrow into his Aqualung. The pain was negligible but the pressure inside him was unbearable. With a surge of blood rushing to his limbs, new arms formed from black blood and orange light. Tealien's new arms were the pale white of all Atlanteans but his vein were now ebon and varicose. Bones repositioned and fused while life and new found energy surged within. Tealien was once again whole. As he looked around the stomach of the beast a huge growing pain welled deep inside him where water once was. He could see the flowing of blood and fluid inside the beast. A strange perversion of his watersight. "In order to provide for Atlantis, we must take from its enemies. We must feed off their strength in order to be strong. Leviathan has become an evil that mortals must not suffer. Take from him and Atlantis will prosper." And so Tealien did. He became strong and he saved Atlantis. Ir'thethrsahuagin smiled and '''Those '''behind him laughed. When all was said and done, Atlantis found out what Tealien did and were shocked. But ultimately grateful. When the priests consulted with Luna on this matter she wept and forbade such an evil, no matter how necessary it was to her children's survival, to stay in Atlantis. The priest told this to Tealien and his rage was at first unstoppable but after his destructive tantrum and saw his own children cry at what he had become he fled the city. And was never welcomed back. It was at the depths of the lost Ocean where Luna met her fallen son. He tried to meet her with violence but the Pearl's power showed no ability to strike her. For Tealien had no true desire to do so. Luna told her son that she is in great need of a champion that does not fit within the purview of Atlantean fate. The surface world has become much worse than what could have possibly been predicted. The desire of Man will grow again soon and will need the blood of the Four to satisfy it. Atlantis, also could be one of the first to be crushed under the heel of Man. She told him that if he still desired to preserve the peace and safety of his people he needs to transcend to the surface and the pearl would be able to provide those abilities. She told him that the Pearl of too dangerous to fall in the hands of mortals and he will need to be It's keeper and It's prisoner. Much like she asked of Leviathan some many centuries ago. It is with that conversation that Tealien fell out of the strands of fate and is the sole Atlantean of the surface world. He awoke in the desert country of Syrahabad, a newly purchased slave to a young drake of a mercenary named Phineas Brahm.